Avaliações dos visitantes de Glencoe Mountain Resort

Stephen Speirs de United Kingdom escreve:

I've been skiing at Glencoe regularly for 6 or 7 seasons now. Before that I mainly skied at some of the other Scottish resorts. I changed over to Glencoe when I realised I would get, typically, twice as much skiing on busy days (weekends) as at the other resorts (which, to be fair, are great places to ski on their day. It's just that I seemed to get more great days at Glencoe overall). I also think Glencoe has one of the best snow records in Scotland, esp for intermediate and advanced skiers. I love the varied terrain at Glencoe, there is something for everyone. The upper runs include challenging runs for even the best of skiers: the Spring Run (classed as a Glencoe red) may be a black in other resorts and the Flypaper is one of the steepest inbound runs in Europe.

Glencoe is great for kids. My son started skiing at Glencoe a few years ago; I think he was age 8 or 9. He quickly got used to the plateau, which is one of the longest beginner runs in Scotland. Now, age 11 (and thanks to the training at the Glencoe Ski Club) he is at home on the (red) "Wall" run - I think I was 40 before I felt comfortable on this run (as a late starting skier)! A day at Glencoe is such a great family day.

Here are some of my tips for getting the best from your time at Glencoe, that may help balance some of the negative comments below :

(0) Take a camera. The scenery at Glencoe is truly spectacular.
(1) When is the best time to go? Conditions in March are typically the best in my experience yet the number of people goes down. Ski in March for the best experience, don't give up early just because skiing it's getting towards spring, or because you have been on your foreign holiday. And don't forget you can usually ski Glencoe into April. Last year the season ended on around May 5th I think. Yes, May!
(2) Most weekends, at Glencoe, are not too busy. Some, however, are busy, especially if other Scottish resorts are closed or have poor conditions. That's just life, sorry!
(3) All Scottish resorts suffer from high winds, at times. Check the forecasts; snow-forecast.com is usually pretty reliable. If the wind speed forecast is around 50, check with the resort. If it's above 60, there is a fair chance lifts won't be able to run. So don't moan if you haven't checked the forecast.
(4) If you aim to hire equipment, be there early. The staff do a good job trying to get a comfortable and safe fit and this process takes time. Think about buying kit off ebay, you may save a fortune in no time at all. I got my son's skis for £70 off ebay; paid for themselves in ~5 trips.
(5) On main holiday dates e.g. Feb mid-term, sometimes at Christmas, if the conditions are reasonable, then Glencoe, like most Scottish resorts, will be busy. Think about hiring off-site. Ski-n-boardroom, in Glasgow, have good rental, then you have no queues for kit at the resort.
(6) Think about a season ticket if you aim to ski several times in the season. 9 times and I think you break even and you have no tickets queues which is worth something in itself. So if you are aiming for 5 days, why not decide to do 9 days and get a season ticket?
(7) Ski through the lunch hour to avoid queues in the plateau cafe, or have both early lunch (11am) and late lunch (2pm)! Or if you are a beginner on the plateau, jump in the chair back to base, you may be quicker.
(8) Make sure you are comfortable on Poma tows. Scottish resorts don't have the money of foreign resorts, so we make do with what we have. And if you stick with it, you will get some fantastic days that you will remember for ever.
(9) On real busy days, please don't queue up the piste, you just shorten the runs for everyone else. So, at the Cliffhanger chair, for example, queue towards the cafe and not up the slope!
(10) Take reviews below, in season 2013/2014, with a pinch of salt, if they talk about queues. Due to a huge amount of snow, a few of the lifts were practically buried and the resort staff battled with continued snow to get them open. So with fewer lifts, queues were bigger. That is not typical at Glencoe. Usually we moan about not enough snow, don't moan about the consequences when we get too much :-)
(11) Ski mid-week if you can. You'll get the quietest slopes then. Also, some people say Sundays are quieter than Saturdays.
(12) If there is one negative, it's the days when we get low cloud/poor visibility. Every resort gets these; unfortunately they are hard to predict.